David Thiselton

THE WSB Summer Cup to be run over 2000m on Turffontein Standside on Saturday is one of the country’s big three races and is always a particularly exciting betting heat as the handicap weight structure gives most of the twenty runners a chance.

There will have been plenty of rain during the build up and the going is likely to be on the soft side.

SUMMER PUDDING is unbeaten in eight starts but will have to break a weight carrying record for a female in this race as the 59kg she has been set is 1kg more than Dancewiththedevil carried to victory in 2011. She also has to overcome a wide draw of 18 and this is the first time she faces males, so it is not surprising she has drifted out to a more realistic 7/2 with the sponsors. There are plenty of plus sides to her chances though. Wide draws in soft going are sometimes not much of a disadvanatage at Turffontein Standside because in such conditions the riders have been known to head for the standside in the straight . Summer Pudding always does just enough to win and having come back from her holiday looking full of substance and well being her big stride could well and truly carry her into the hearts of the nation.

CHARLES will attempt to give Mike de Kock a tenth Summer Cup victory and has been backed into joint 7/2 favourite. He is by Trippi out of the Ipi Tombe Challenge winner Demanding Lady, a Dynasty mare whose five wins were from 1200m to 2200m. He has finished second over 2400m before and has enjoyed a good preparation. He has the rounded action suited to soft going and has won in such conditions before. He runs off a competitive merit rating of 110. 

PACK LEADER, al;so backed in to 7/2, has blossomed since joining Alec Laird’s yard on the Highveld and is attractively weighted considering he finished seventh in the Sun Met on weight for age terms against most of the best in the country. He now carries just 54.5kg off a 109 merit rating. He is suited to the galloping nature of Turffontein Standside with its long straight. He has a good draw of five and his jockey S’Manga Khumalo, who has won this race before, needs no introduction. One possible concern is soft going, as he has a daisy-cutting action, which is usually best suited to fast going. 

CHRISTOPHER ROBIN’S two stakes wins have both been in rain affected ground and he impressed when winning the Grade 3 Victory Moon Stakes over 1800m on the Standside track under S’Manga Khumalo. He was given an eleven point merit rating raise so it will be tougher this time but he carries a nice galloping weight of 54kg. He will relish the step up to 2000m and is drawn well in two. Dennis Schwarz is an able replacement for Khumalo and will be out to make it two Summer Cup victories in succession.

ASTRIX should finish together with Christopher Robin on form. Concerns have been raised about him seeing out the trip based on his pedigree and his Grade 1 SA Classic run. His sire Vercingetorix is imparting more speed and less stamina than does his father Silvano. Furthermore, his dam is a half-sister to Thunder Dance who did win the Paddock Stakes but was essentially a miler. However, his damsire Victory Moon gives him a shout of staying and it should also be borne in mind that in the SA Classic he was caught wide throughout. Last time in the Victory Moon over 1800m he had to do some early work to overcome another wide draw yet stayed on well for second. He is now well drawn so should get cover and pace master Piere Strydom is in the irons.

TIERRA DEL FUEGO’S five length third at weight for age terms in the Champions Challenge reads well here. He has three wins, a second and a third in five outings on rain affected ground and his rider Gavin Lerena has won this race three times. However, he does have a tough draw of 14 to overcome and has to carry joint-topweight over a distance which stretches him.

TRISTFUL has been staying at Stuart Pettigrew’s yard and will have come on from his Charity Mile run. That run came about three weeks after he had arrived on the Highveld, which is usually around the time horses traveling up to the altitude hit a flat spot. On the form of his Grade 1 Champions Cup fifth place finish he has a definite chance. He will enjoy the course and distance as well as the conditions, having won on the soft before. The pace should be on so his pole position draw could well be an advantage.

DIVINE ODYSSEY is a long-striding sort who is capable of a strong finish but takes a while to find topgear and thus enjoys the long straight of the Turffontein Standside course. He has won twice in soft going and usually peaks for big races, so could be a threat.

ZILLZAAL strode out well in the Charity Mile and was entitled to tire late in his first run for eleven months. Sean Tarry said he had come out of that race well, so he is sure to make a bold bid to defend his crown.

CROWN TOWERS is proven in soft going. Wet weather is also known to make it easier for horses to handle the effects of high altitude. He is by Epsom Derby winner Camelot, so will enjoy this tough 2000m course and distance.

TREE TUMBO has always been rated by Tarry and is improving in the typical style of a Silvano four-year-old, so from a good draw is a dark horse. He is out of a sprint-miler by Oasis Dream and still has to prove he stays this trip. However, he was the fastest finisher in the Charity Mile and in his only attempt at this trip, when unplaced in the Daily New 2000, he pulled up with an abscess. 

CORNISH POMODORO is 1.5kg under sufferance but has improved with gelding. He was doing his best work late in his comeback over 1600m, so should relish this trip, and he had excuses for his below par run in the Charity Mile.

YOUCANTHURRYLOVE finished a close third in both the Grade 1 SA Classic and Charity Mile and is well drawn. He is by Gimmethegreenlight out of a Jallad mare who won up to 1800m and he is a half-brother to a horse who won over the Summer Cup trip. Chase Maujean would have learnt something from his Charity Mile run so he has a shout.

HERO’S HONOUR has dropped to a competitive mark for a former SA Derby winner but does have a tough draw.

RUNNING BRAVE is usually ignored in the betting but proof of her class is that she comes out on top in her one on one clash with the champion Celtic Sea and she stays this trip. Her best performances have been against females but she will be dangerous if getting to the front from draw ten.

RIVERSTOWN could play an important role if he is used as pacemaker for Summer Pudding. He could otherwise be a threat for although he has given the impression he would prefer shorter he should easily stay this trip on pedigree. His sire Byword won a Group 1 over a mile and two furlongs at Royal Ascot and his dam won over a mile and four furlongs in yielding going in Ireland.

VICTORIA PAIGE sneaks into the handicap with the minimum weight. She is capable of plugging on resolutely but has the widest draw of all to overcome.

ATYAAB is a former Cape Derby winner and finished fifth last year. He has not run for 301 days but did put up a good recent grass gallop.

DANCE CLASS is 3.5kg under sufferance but stayed on well in the Victory Moon over 1800m. She will relish the step up in trip as well as the possible testing conditions just as her close relative Dancewiththedevil did when winning this race in 2011.

SEVEN PATRIOTS has his toughest task to date here and is half-a-kilogram under sufferance. He is yet to try the distance but although being by Soft Falling, who was a miler, his Australian-bred dam finished a narrow second in the Grade 2 Gold Bracelet over this trip. He could be a threat if allowed an easy lead from a good draw of six.

David Thiselton

JUSTIN SNAITH said the decision to run Crown Towers in the Grade 1 WSB Summer Cup was largely as a show of support for the like of MOD (Mary Oppenheimer and Daughters), Mike de Kock and the RA, who had done a lot to save Cape racing.

He said, “They have always supported our racing and Mike de Kock has often said I am too scared to come up to Johannesburg but Crown Towers and Keep The Lights On (who runs in the Grade 3 WSB Magnolia Handicap) are just the first two, we are going to raid regularly from now on.”

Crown Towers was brought back down to Summerveld after his unplaced run in the Charity Mile.

Snaith said, “That was a bit on the short side, he has always been more impressive over further.”

Snaith said it had not been easy to prepare him because of the amount of rain there had been at Summerveld, but he added this had just made it more challenging and it was not going to change his chances.

He said, “I am very happy with his preparation. Whether he is good enough to win it, time will tell.”

He is also happy with Keep The Lights On and gives her a shout.

Snaith could not use the usual method of traveling the horses overnight and arriving on the morning of the race because of recent incidents of unrest on the Highway at night.

The pair of horses thus arrived in Johannesburg today (Friday).

A point in their favour is the rain that is around. Wet weather is believed to make it easier for horses coming from the coast to handle the high altitude of the Highveld. It should also be born in mind that Summerveld is not at sea level but is in fact a third of the altitude of the Highveld and horses have traveled from there to win over long distances before.

Michael Clower

GLEN KOTZEN has decided to have no runners for the next fortnight after a mysterious and undetectable virus forced him to scratch all his 12 horses at Kenilworth on Wednesday.

“The horses ran so badly at the last meeting (he ran 11 – only one made the frame, four finished last and another four were second last) that I have decided to pull the plug. I will give them all 14 days off and have no runners during that period. Once they start freshening up again we will start nominating.

“It’s a respiratory infection but it shows nothing and there are no symptoms. The horses look good, they work well, eat up and don’t cough. But when they get to the 400m mark, and the jockey starts asking them, they stop as if they had been shot.

“Last Saturday’s runners looked fine beforehand, we lung-washed them and the bloods were good to go yet they ran badly. The quickest way to get rid of something like this is not to run anything.”

It has been a tough week for the Woodhill trainer. On Monday he was fined R35 000 as a urine sample taken from Herodotus, after winning a race at Kenilworth over two years ago, was found to contain traces of a human painkiller. Seemingly this came from the urine of one of the stable staff.

But Kotzen, typically, is looking beyond this week’s bad news, reasoning that the Cape season is only just getting into gear and that his present patient approach can pay big dividends in the next three months.

It was 4.45am on Wednesday when Eric Sands found out that he was in trouble. “Rainbow Bridge had traces of urticaria on his neck and cheek. It’s an allergy, like somebody coming out in a rash, and it can happen in a few minutes. By the time I checked out the rest of the string it had gone down his shoulder.

“I wasn’t going to wait until it covered his whole body. I had to give him treatment and I couldn’t run him after doing that.’

Obviously the treatment would show up in any post-race dope test and the horse would be disqualified. Not treating him, and letting him run, was not an option either. “True, he might have won by six lengths but he was 5-10 and, if he was beaten, what would that have done for the public, the horse and myself? Running him would have been absolute stupidity and I certainly wasn’t going to risk it.”

Last year’s Met winner will now start off in the Green Point on December 12 and unfortunately his second run back, the one where he tends to run a bit flat, will be the L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate on 9 January.

They say they never come back but Captain Of Stealth, struck down by serious injury after looking a star of the future last season, put up a truly eye-catching performance in today’s Tabonline.co.za Pinnacle.

True, the race took a lot less winning without Rainbow Bridge but Sean Veale’s mount pulled his way to the front early and looked as if he might just hold on a furlong out. At the line he only went down by three-quarters of a length to the fellow Vaughan Marshall-trained Silver Operator in the Mario Ferreira colours and, if he stays sound, his day will surely come.

“I was very happy with Captain Of Stealth,” said Marshall, “and I think we will look at the Green Point with Silver Operator.”

African Night Sky, running for the first time since the 2018 Durban July, finished last but Justin Snaith was far from disheartened, saying: “He was very keen, too above himself and too excited – but he had only had the one grass gallop in all the time he has been off.”

A panel discussion focussing on Saturday’s World Sports Betting Gauteng Summer Cup at Turffontein will be broadcast on Tellytrack at 19:45 this evening.

The panel comprises commentator and host Alistair Cohen and trainers Sean Tarry, Alec Laird and Paul Peter, who will saddle unbeaten four-year-old filly Summer Pudding and stablemates Astrix and Riverstown in the Cup.

The show will be broadcast again tomorrow night after the last race at Chelmsford City at 21:00.